Log in

User Name

Password

Remember Me?

Lost Password Recovery Form

If you have forgotten your username or password, you can request to have your username emailed to you and to reset your password. When you fill in your registered email address, you will be sent instructions on how to reset your password.

New Paintng: Forest Fire

I've been offline for awhile - I moved to a new apartment, and finally got my internet connection going at my new pad today.

This piece is my first attempt at speed-painting. I originally intended to spend 1 or 2 hours on it, maximum. But...... I got caught up in the details and it ended up taking much longer (more like 8 hours.) So, as a speed-painting experiment, it's a failure. But I like the final result and am glad that I spent the extra time on it.

hey sanhueza, i think there should be a lot of thick darker smoke in the air that would block some of visibility near the top of this painting, and maybe some smoke around part of the figure for a more mysterious effect. very cool painting though.

yes, the leaves were made using the leaf brush which is part of Photoshop's nature brush set. Thanks for the tips about smoke and the yellow leaves! I originally planned to erase parts of the yellow leaves to make them look more like sparks, but liked how they looked and decided to keep them whole. Maybe they stand out too much...

100 points for concept and composition. -50 points for using a PHOTOSHOP PRESET BRUSH! I'm sorry I hate when i see these used in a serious piece. Like when I see people using the stupid grass blade brush in their work, its like using a stencil a 5 year old would. Anyways overall I think its a successful piece. Keep pushing.

I agree, those leaf-brush leaves are really killing it for me. If you go back in and break them up with brushes similar to what you did the rest with, to make them less regular and identifiable, it would help immeasurably.

It's true that they don't match the other brushes in the painting. I've been looking at alot of traditional Japanese painting recently, and they often incorporate multiple identical leaves in a pleasing manner. Of course, the rest of this painting isn't in that style. I wouldn't want to go back and create them over one-by-one. I think what Elwell suggests is the best idea: break them up with different brushes to make them less uniform and stencil-like.

However... I like the leaves for the reason that GumboYaYa pointed out: "the contrast between the graphically clean and accurate leaves and the sketchy style of the rest of the picture." Plus, my Mom likes them :p

So I'm still on the fence about it. I'll probably look back on this in 6 months and be like, "yeah, those leaves suck, I need to do them over!"

deliciouspeter - I looked at photos of forest fires at night for reference, and the leaves get brighter and redder the closer they are to the fire, until everything blends into a reddish haze in the background. I think it's the light of the fire reflected off of the smoke which gives them that atmospheric perspective effect. Might look interesting having them all darker, though.

GumboYaYa - I thought that grey area at the center of the flames was intense white, but now that I look at it closer, I see that it's not! I can make it brighter.